Farewell Symposium on Industrial Mattheijmatics Includes Queen�s Honors

March 18, 2012

Bob O'Malley and Wil Schilders

Bob Mattheij has retired after more than 20 years as a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at TU Eindhoven, with plans to concentrate his efforts on the company LIME (Laboratory for Industrial Mathematics Eindhoven), which he directs. In the course of an extremely active and successful career, he has advised more than 50 PhD students and published more than 200 papers; he is also the co-author of four books, including three from SIAM---Numerical Solution of Boundary Value ODEs, Ordinary Differential Equations in Theory and Practice, and Partial Differential Equations: Modeling, Analysis, and Computation.

Bob organized a mathematical consultancy in 1983 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and in 1986 was one of the founding fathers of ECMI (the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry), serving at various times as secretary, treasurer, and president. His very applied research projects have emphasized numerical analysis, glass forming, and educational programs internationally.

A farewell symposium featuring old friends and collaborators was held in Eind-hoven. The organizers of the symposium were Wil Schilders (chair), Bob O'Malley, Frank de Hoog of CSIRO-Canberra, J. van der Vegt of the University of Twente, S. Houben, a former student now at Magna Design Automation, Heinz Engl, incoming president of the University of Vienna, and Helmut Neunzert of the Fraunhofer-Institute ITWM in Kaiserslautern. Following a large academic procession, Bob gave a talk, simultaneously serious and humorous, titled "Tongue, Tool and Tech." After remarks by the university rector, the bestowing of gifts, and perfor-mance of a Corelli duet by Bob's daughters, the mayor of Eindhoven, on behalf of Queen Beatrix, inducted Bob into the Order of Officers of Orange-Nassau. Bob proudly wore the handsome gold medal throughout the reception and banquet that followed.---Bob O'Malley, University of Washington, and Wil Schilders, Eindhoven University of Technology.

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